A Pattern of Self-Denial

9 Am ^(A)I not an apostle? Am I not free? ^(B)Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? ^(C)Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are ^(D)the ^[a]seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this: ^4 (E)Do we have no ^[b]right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we have no right to take along ^[c]a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, ^(F)the brothers of the Lord, and ^(G)Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I ^(H)who have no right to refrain from working?

Christian Liberty

5 ^(A)Stand^[a] fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a ^(B)yoke of bondage. ² Indeed I, Paul, say to you that ^(C)if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. ³ And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised ^(D)that he is ^[b]a debtor to keep the whole law. ^4 (E)You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; ^(F)you have fallen from grace. ⁵ For we through the Spirit eagerly ^(G)wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. ⁶ For ^(H)in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but ^(I)faith working through love.

Love Fulfills the Law

⁷ You ^(J)ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? ⁸ This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. ^9 (K)A little leaven leavens the whole lump. ¹⁰ I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

¹¹ And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, ^(L)why do I still suffer persecution? Then ^(M)the offense of the cross has ceased. ^12 (N)I could wish that those ^(O)who trouble you would even ^[c]cut themselves off!

¹³ For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only ^(P)do not use liberty as an ^(Q)opportunity for the flesh, but ^(R)through love serve one another.

^15 (A)Having disarmed ^(B)principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶ So let no one ^(C)judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a ^[a]festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ^17 (D)which are a shadow of things to come, but the ^[b]substance is of Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has ^[c]not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to ^(E)the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, ^(F)grows with the increase that is from God.

^20 [d]Therefore, if you ^(G)died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, ^(H)why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ^21 (I)“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” ²² which all concern things which perish with the using—^(J)according to the commandments and doctrines of men? ^23 (K)These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and ^[e]neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.